The Austin City Limits Music Festival will be extended to two weekends in 2013, according to city officials and festival organizers Oct. 3.

"We're just really thankful and excited to have this opportunity to live, work and play in Austin Texas, and we're looking forward to two great weekends next year," said Charlie Jones, a partner at C3 Presents.

Next year, ACL will take place Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 11-13 in Zilker Park, 2100 Barton Springs Road. According to Jones, the second weekend will be a similar structure and lineup to the first weekend of the festival. The Austin City Council approved negotiations for the extended festival in a meeting Aug. 16.

"It is our goal to, more or less, duplicate the exact same festival two weekends in a row," he said. "I think we can probably say 90 percent of the bands will play both weekends, which will give us the opportunity to fill some of the slots with a lot of Austin bands that haven't had a chance to play the ACL festival."

The festival, which started in 2002, has featured artists including Reckless Kelly, Ben Harper, The Allman Brothers Band and Arcade Fire. Since 2006, it has contributed $6 million to Austin park projects and improvements. In 2011, about 59 percent of attendees were from outside of Austin. This year's festival, Oct. 12-14, is expected to attract about 225,000 people.

"ACL has, for many years, brought a lot to our city," said Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell. "It is part of our culture as the 'Live Music Capital of the World.'"

Early-bird three-day passes will be available for the extended festival shortly after this year's festival. Jones said though ticket prices vary from year to year, he expects tickets for next year's festival to be close to this year's price.

"To me, an additional weekend for this event is double your pleasure, double your fun, double our economic impact and have a chance to work more with some great partners," said Bob Lander, president and CEO of the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau.